>What happens with Steemit?

Based on the many comments from Steemit, Inc. personnel over a period of many months now, development of Steemit.com seems to be an afterthought. They stated a few months back that Steemit.com will only be "just good enough." And recently on Steemit.chat, @sneak stated that backend development is the priority for the foreseeable future. 

Simple features and functionality that have/has been requested by users since last year continue to be disregarded in favor of half-developed ideas and changes to blockchain protocols that drastically change user behaviors. Some of these blockchain protocol changes haven't even been requested by users or developers -  they just happen to be related to Steemit, Inc's plans for future development, which is the exact opposite of decentralization. 

The real issue, though - as I have stated before - is the constant conflation between Steem the blockchain/platform and Steemit, Inc., the company that owns the social media site: Steemit.com. When development of the website doesn't happen and the company that owns it continues with hardforks and other backend development, what should users, developers, and investors think/expect? The confusion lies directly at the feet of the company.

So...what happens with Steemit?

If I were a betting man: Not much at all, at least not any time soon. There doesn't appear to be anyone at Steemit, Inc. who knows how to run a social media site/company. And if there's no development being done and no immediate plans for it, let's dispense with the "Beta" pretense and just accept that this may be about as good a website as we're likely to get.

I suppose we can wait for the 2018 road map to see what the plans are, but that'll be at least another three months away. And it's not likely that the planned release dates for 2018 will be entirely accurate anyway.